The present invention lies in the field of controlling an engine. It applies in particular to controlling a rocket engine.
The invention relates more particularly to a method and to a device for optimizing starting or stop sequences of such an engine.
As is known to the person skilled in the art, such sequences define the timing of events such as, for example: opening, adjusting, or closing valves, or igniting pyrotechnic means.
In the present state of the art, the starting and stop sequences of a rocket engine are predetermined once and for all on the ground and they are programmed into an on-board computer.
Consequently, each time a rocket engine needs to be (re)ignited, on launch or after a first flight around the earth, it always executes the same sequence.
Unfortunately, it turns out that the engine does not always respond in the same way to the same sequence, in particular as a result of drift in certain of its structural characteristics (e.g. its heat exchange coefficient), in its environment, or in its thermodynamic conditions.
Precalculated prior art sequences are not always optimal throughout the lifetime of the engine.